Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Sabre on May 11, 2015, 03:36:33 PM
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Thinking of purchasing a new desktop, but most of the deals I find on-line have Win8.1 installed. I understand it was coded for optimal use with touch-screens. Opinions? I ask because on one manufacture's website, it was actually $75 bucks more to downgrade to Win7, vs taking the Win8.1 that came standard. :bhead
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If windows 8.1 is already coming with your setup, id suggest keeping it. go to Ninite.com and download Classic Shell(Classic Start) to get the good old Start menu back.
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I would get the cheapest of the two, then upgrade to Windows 10 this fall. For free.
Coogan
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Isn't that supposedfree upgrade, only good for a year?
Not much of a free upgrade if it will shut down at the end of that year.
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Isn't that supposedfree upgrade, only good for a year?
Not much of a free upgrade if it will shut down at the end of that year.
What your referring to is the Tech demo. Windows 10 isn't out. They say Windows 10 will be "free" to anyone running A windows 7 and 8 OS(legitimate or not) but you'll almost definitely have to jump through lots of hoops to get it.
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I say get Win 7. My friend has Win 8.1 and it's just a complete nightmare.
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Windows 7 is a better running OS and from what I've seen the DRM limitations from W8 makes it horrid.
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Windows 7. Win8 seems to be geared towards the tablets and such, windows 7 is the standard now for businesses. They won't be killing it off soon, as it's very expensive for businesses to set up their entire networks and don't like changing OS every time a new fad comes out. It's stable and functions well.
Most of my offices are on 7, I've even got some older plan viewing systems still using XP, not one win8 in the system.
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8.1 is rubbish and an absolute PITA to do anything with
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WIN 7
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Thinking of purchasing a new desktop, but most of the deals I find on-line have Win8.1 installed. I understand it was coded for optimal use with touch-screens. Opinions? I ask because on one manufacture's website, it was actually $75 bucks more to downgrade to Win7, vs taking the Win8.1 that came standard. :bhead
Some manufacturers offer the chance to "degrade" the OS and offer Windows 7 instead of Windows 8, some even cut the price if you do. In any event, with Windows 10 just around the corner and you can still play AH with Windows 8.1 with no real issues, just stick with it and upgrade to Windows 10 in the fall for free.
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Download Classic shell for winodows 8.1
It's really worth it.
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The biggest impact of Windows 8 from my experience has been that it breaks a couple of legacy games that still work in 7. Other than that with Classic shell it's doable. I've been using Windows 10 for a long time now on all my gaming machines and no complaints there except it's a bit ugly.
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Isn't that supposedfree upgrade, only good for a year?
Not much of a free upgrade if it will shut down at the end of that year.
No, the upgrade is free if you download it within one year. If you choose not to do so, then you will have to pay to upgrade.
Windows 10 does not expire after a year.
Coogan
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Had a PC built for me and specced win 7 for it. I am satisfied with the thing. No glitches and an improvement over vista that was on my old system.
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No, the upgrade is free if you download it within one year. If you choose not to do so, then you will have to pay to upgrade.
Windows 10 does not expire after a year.
Coogan
I believe the 1 year expiration is only for Window 7 users.
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I believe the 1 year expiration is only for Window 7 users.
Windows 10 News from PC World. (http://www.pcworld.com/article/2873214/windows-10-will-be-a-free-upgrade-for-windows-7-and-8-users.html)
I don't know, but this sounds permanent to me.
Coogan
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Win7 and then take advantage of the free win10 upgrade later this year. If you care about things like remote desktop and encryption, make sure you get win7 pro.
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Win7 is more like older versions of Windows. Win8.1 has some annoying aspects as mentioned, built for tablets and phones in some ways (the included calculator takes 100% of my 27" screen), but if you are running on an SSD then Win8.1 is better for drive handling.
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I have been using 8.1 for about a year now.
A little quirky to get used to the interface but once you do - I prefer it. I have had no performance issues at all.
I recently put a new PC in our business for my wife with 8.1 on it. I offered to 'turn it back' to 7 for her. Her response was "nope, I will work it out". LOL, 4 weeks in and she loves it.
I often think the people that cry about it simply have not spent the time to learn how to use it. Of course this is the Internet and I will now be flamed but such is life. :)
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I have been using 8.1 for about a year now.
A little quirky to get used to the interface but once you do - I prefer it. I have had no performance issues at all.
I recently put a new PC in our business for my wife with 8.1 on it. I offered to 'turn it back' to 7 for her. Her response was "nope, I will work it out". LOL, 4 weeks in and she loves it.
I often think the people that cry about it simply have not spent the time to learn how to use it. Of course this is the Internet and I will now be flamed but such is life. :)
My Wife was the opposite. She gave it six weeks, but then brought the laptop to me and told me she did not want it back if she had to keep using Windows 8.1. Her question to me, "Why would anyone design an operating system to get in the way of running applications?".
She got tired of constantly having to Google for help on how to do things. It was not a matter of learning how to use it, it was that it required so much more effort to do anything than before that got her going.
Her other favorite rant, "If I wanted to use a mobile phone to run my apps, I would use the damn mobile phone!". This in reference to how you have to drag the cursor off screen to get to menus.
I have to concur with her. Windows 8.1 seems more mobile phone oriented than desktop oriented, but even then it fails. It just seems to be an operating system looking for an identity and cannot find one.
She also got irritated about having to buy other utilities (a decent media player) which are already bundled in Windows 7. Seems Microsoft took the opportunity to rid itself of anything it had to pay license fees for, while also raising the price of the operating system. Good for the bottom line, not so good for the end use.
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As has been said, 7 has the feel and looks of the older Windows versions starting from 95. Then again, some settings changed places already in Vista, so if your last OS was XP you'd have to learn some new ways to do things whichever you choose. What has been bugging me with the variations of 8 is that the operating system can't find its identity: Some essential settings have changed place several times during the existence of 8. It's quite hard to troubleshoot a computer when the first two Google answers from Microsoft give totally different instructions to modify a single setting!
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Thanks for the feedback, gang. I found a good deal on a Dell XPS 8700, with Win7, so I went with that. It's for one of my kids, and they were preferring Win7, if I could get it without paying extra for it. I'll likely recommend she upgrade to 10 when it comes out (free, so why not?), for the sake of future support and newer programs/apps that my not work for 7.
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Microsoft just announced 6 versions of windows 10, the most relevant to us probably being win 10 pro, home, and education. There is a risk, I think, of having MS determine that any particular win7 or win8 installation only merits a free upgrade to win10 home. There are a handful of win7 pro features that I rely on, and I don't expect those features to make it into win10 home.
When the upgrade becomes available I'll probably have to make sure any upgraded machine starts from win7 pro 64 bit to ensure that I end up with the appropriate win10 version.
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A piece of advice for the future upgrade: Instead of upgrading the existing Win7 just download the Win10 and do a fresh install of it on a new hard disk. Windows versions have never been perfect when released, the first service pack usually does the trick. A dual boot might also be an option there. I wonder if the double install trick for upgrade versions launched with Vista would still work with 10, or would it be needed at all? And as for compatibility issues, I believe that any software released before 2020 will work equally well on Win7 as on Win10.
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The way I am getting it is that Microsoft is trying to meld PC & phone apps together. They want their Windows OS to kinda be the same across all platforms.
Coogan
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i have windows 8.1 it is bad very very bad!
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I am just curious about why would microsoft give windows away. what is the catch?
semp
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I am just curious about why would microsoft give windows away. what is the catch?
semp
That's just it. Not catch, as long as you get it within a year.
It will be in their best interest to only have to update and support one OS, rather than trying to do Win 7/8.1 etc.
Please watch this for more info. Windows 10 Will Have Free Upgrade For One Year (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlKasUbSa-E)
Just a side note: Win 10 will support Direct-X 12. The other OS's will not.
Coogan
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That's just it. Not catch, as long as you get it within a year.
It will be in their best interest to only have to update and support one OS, rather than trying to do Win 7/8.1 etc.
Please watch this for more info. Windows 10 Will Have Free Upgrade For One Year (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlKasUbSa-E)
Just a side note: Win 10 will support Direct-X 12. The other OS's will not.
Coogan
this "no catch" things reminds me of when my gf/now exwife said, I want to have a baby and you dont have to worry about it. It was a lie.
semp
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this "no catch" things reminds me of when my gf/now exwife said, I want to have a baby and you dont have to worry about it. It was a lie.
semp
That sounds so familiar... :cheers:
Coogan
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My Wife was the opposite. She gave it six weeks, but then brought the laptop to me and told me she did not want it back if she had to keep using Windows 8.1. Her question to me, "Why would anyone design an operating system to get in the way of running applications?".
She got tired of constantly having to Google for help on how to do things. It was not a matter of learning how to use it, it was that it required so much more effort to do anything than before that got her going.
Her other favorite rant, "If I wanted to use a mobile phone to run my apps, I would use the damn mobile phone!". This in reference to how you have to drag the cursor off screen to get to menus.
I have to concur with her. Windows 8.1 seems more mobile phone oriented than desktop oriented, but even then it fails. It just seems to be an operating system looking for an identity and cannot find one.
She also got irritated about having to buy other utilities (a decent media player) which are already bundled in Windows 7. Seems Microsoft took the opportunity to rid itself of anything it had to pay license fees for, while also raising the price of the operating system. Good for the bottom line, not so good for the end use.
I just updated my gaming machine and went to 8.1, I didn't do the upgrade from 7 but did a new install of the 64bit version of 8.1. No really major issues and reinstalling only the software I actually wanted and use has cleaned up a lot of junk. My understanding is that Windows 8 which was presented for the touch screen people was replaced with 8.1 which supports either the touch screen or the traditional screen mouse user like me. It's no better or worse then any OS I've ever had to use. I did load the traditional start screen shell.
Over all I like it and am glade I did the fresh install. For heavy gamer's there are some issues with memory leakage, Steam appears to have the most issues. A fix has been announced and will be distributed by Microsoft in August 2015. I do plan to upgrade to 10 as soon as it is released, perhaps a new gaming machine as well or just refresh the one I have, add a third graphics card.
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I've been using Win 8.1 on the laptop I bought last year and it's really not bad at all once you get used to it (and I'm not running Classic Shell).
First you have to tell it to launch to desktop rather than Metro (app) mode. Now you're launching to a normal Windows desktop like you've come to know over all these years but the start menu's gone! No worries, right click the "window" where the start menu used to be and there's a host of options. The problem here is programs and recent documents aren't there. To access programs you have to left click the window and a screen with program icons (which you can organize) opens in a metro style format with a scroll bar at the bottom. I liked the old folders and subfolders but it's only a minor issue. For documents I dropped Windows Explorer into my tsk bar. Left clicking opens My Computer while right clicking lets me select options including my documents.
Basics out of the way and feeling much like every other version of Windows you'll find apps are useless. Delete the apps and replace them with the real program. Delete the Adobe app for instance and go to the Adobe website and download the program. Instead of the app taking over your display you'll gain functionality and be able to window it just as you're used to. For every pre-installed app there's probably a real program you can replace it with. I've found all the ones I wanted.
Once you get it tweaked out Win 8.1 is really just like every other Windows OS. I rarely use the ""sweep left" or "click this corner" stuff because I don't have to but it's there if I want to do it that way, So is the "Metro" desktop (two clicks to access, one click to return).
My 2 cents.
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I finally got Windows 7 running on her laptop, even though ASUS has no support for it. She is a happy camper again, and so am I, now that I am not having to spend most of my free time providing support for her and/or listening to the complaints.
You guys do realize you sound like, "Hey, you just need to get used to drinking the horse piss. Once you do it is fine."
Seems like the "Windows 8.1 is fine as long as you do...." list keeps getting longer all the time. Just an observation.
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The UN was founded to protect people from things like Windows 8.
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I finally got Windows 7 running on her laptop, even though ASUS has no support for it. She is a happy camper again, and so am I, now that I am not having to spend most of my free time providing support for her and/or listening to the complaints.
You guys do realize you sound like, "Hey, you just need to get used to drinking the horse piss. Once you do it is fine."
Seems like the "Windows 8.1 is fine as long as you do...." list keeps getting longer all the time. Just an observation.
Same could be said for Aces High, think about it. you can make lots of changes to 8.1 or it does work fine right out of the box. It's not better or worse , it's just different. 8.1 is oriented towards the traditional desktop mouse user. I found doing a install rather than an upgrade the way to go for me. I'm glad I did and am looking forward to 10.
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Same could be said for Aces High, think about it. you can make lots of changes to 8.1 or it does work fine right out of the box. It's not better or worse , it's just different. 8.1 is oriented towards the traditional desktop mouse user. I found doing a install rather than an upgrade the way to go for me. I'm glad I did and am looking forward to 10.
Not sure I get your comparison to Aces High.
Never said Windows 8.1 did not work. I think I said it is clumsy to work with. Out of the box it requires more mouse clicks to do anything, than Windows 7 does. It also requires you to install third party programs to do things Windows 7 does out of the box.
Sure, anyone can get use it. The lingering question is why? Why make it more difficult to use? Why strip it of functionality? It just does not seem to move things forward.
Now that Windows 10 is out, Microsoft has dropped the price of Windows 8.1 to the same as Windows 7. Still makes Windows 7 a better deal.
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Not sure I get your comparison to Aces High.
Never said Windows 8.1 did not work. I think I said it is clumsy to work with. Out of the box it requires more mouse clicks to do anything, than Windows 7 does. It also requires you to install third party programs to do things Windows 7 does out of the box.
Sure, anyone can get use it. The lingering question is why? Why make it more difficult to use? Why strip it of functionality? It just does not seem to move things forward.
Now that Windows 10 is out, Microsoft has dropped the price of Windows 8.1 to the same as Windows 7. Still makes Windows 7 a better deal.
I was referring to this :You guys do realize you sound like, "Hey, you just need to get used to drinking the horse piss. Once you do it is fine."
Aces High plays a certain way and with all the many wish list posts over the years, still pretty much plays as it did when it first came out, every player in Aces High had to learn to drink the horse piss, as you so eloquently stated.
It may be that as a tool, the things I do with a computer, windows 7 was over kill as I may not have found it necessary to use all of the tools 7 provided, there fore if I never used it, I didn't miss it if it wasn't included in 8.1. I'm sure it's not up to your requirements. I'm just saying for a lot of people 8.1 works just fine out of the box and it's designed for the way I work and provides and supports everything that I do. That doesn't make either 7 or 8.1 better or worse, they are just different.
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I was referring to this :
Aces High plays a certain way and with all the many wish list posts over the years, still pretty much plays as it did when it first came out, every player in Aces High had to learn to drink the horse piss, as you so eloquently stated.
Uhmm,..the basic premise of Aces High is that it can be played any way you want to play it, which still stands. Where your comparison fails is the way Aces High plays is a known quantity and has been so, since it shipped. From Windows 7 to Windows 8.1 a great deal changed and for most it was not a good change.
You can also stop playing Aces High any time you like. There are other games.
When it comes to getting a job done, there is little option for operating systems. You are stuck with Windows. Some times you do not have a choice as to the version you would like to run.
It may be that as a tool, the things I do with a computer, windows 7 was over kill as I may not have found it necessary to use all of the tools 7 provided, there fore if I never used it, I didn't miss it if it wasn't included in 8.1. I'm sure it's not up to your requirements. I'm just saying for a lot of people 8.1 works just fine out of the box and it's designed for the way I work and provides and supports everything that I do. That doesn't make either 7 or 8.1 better or worse, they are just different.
Actually, I have never had to use Windows 8.1, except at work. The basis for my statements has been from listening to my Wife and helping her with it. She is a great designer, but her computer skills are pretty basic. She just wants to run her applications without all the added inputs required from Windows 8.1.
Personally, I think Windows 8.1 is a poor design, for a desktop operating system, as it ships. That does not mean it cannot be "gotten used to".
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Uhmm,..the basic premise of Aces High is that it can be played any way you want to play it, which still stands
Skuzzy, that’s in theory only, the AVA , LW, MW and EW all play as they are set up and anyone entering them must play by the rules established for that arena. I have no idea how many one off arena are created and used, perhaps thousands, perhaps just a handful, but I think the majority of the playing public is drinking the piss and playing in the LW according to the rules established there. They have no way to alter those rules.
Personally, I think Windows 8.1 is a poor design, for a desktop operating system, as it ships. That does not mean it cannot be "gotten used to".
It may be, but from where I sit in the cheap seats it works for me as is and I think I use the tools of my machine much like your spouse uses her machine. I use outlook, word and excel, powerpoint and viseo. All OTC software packages that I use to support my business. I make one click on the icon on the desktop and I’m there. Not sure what all the clicking your talking about is for. The only OS environments I support are all mainframe, big iron ZOS IBM assembler systems .
. Where your comparison fails is the way Aces High plays is a known quantity and has been so, since it shipped. From Windows 7 to Windows 8.1 a great deal changed and for most it was not a good change.
Like I said, not much has changed in the game since it was first published, it still basically plays the same, players had to, as you say “drink the piss” and like I said, your statement of “can be played any way you want to play it” , is in theory only.
You can also stop playing Aces High any time you like. There are other games.
When it comes to getting a job done, there is little option for operating systems. You are stuck with Windows. Some times you do not have a choice as to the version you would like to run.
Did Apple go out of business? go out to google and do a search for PC operating systems, There are others, they are just not preinstalled on every machine sold.
Actually, I have never had to use Windows 8.1, except at work. The basis for my statements has been from listening to my Wife and helping her with it. She is a great designer, but her computer skills are pretty basic. She just wants to run her applications without all the added inputs required from Windows 8.1.
Like I said, I run all the software I need off my desktop and they don’t or didn’t require any additional inputs. I link into mainframes and run and receive reports, I develop software offline and run it on the mainframe. With no issues.
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Just click on the new windows 10 download "reservation" icon on your status bar and it'll all be good :)
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Ever since I purchased a new ASUS computer with Win8 it has been nothing but problems. I upgraded to Win8.1. It did not improve.
Every time I wish to use my CH Hotas in Aces High I have to remove all three controllers in control panel.
I then have to reboot the system and my CH Hotas works. I guess Win8 only sees USB3 and not USB2.
I have no other explanation. It reminds me of Vista and windows millennium. It is horrible for a desktop operating system.
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I used to have windows ME, it lasted 10 minutes before I reformatted the HDD and put Win98 back on it
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Ever since I purchased a new ASUS computer with Win8 it has been nothing but problems. I upgraded to Win8.1. It did not improve.
Every time I wish to use my CH Hotas in Aces High I have to remove all three controllers in control panel.
I then have to reboot the system and my CH Hotas works. I guess Win8 only sees USB3 and not USB2.
I have no other explanation. It reminds me of Vista and windows millennium. It is horrible for a desktop operating system.
More like CH has a horrible record in updating their drivers. It's their fault not Win8:s.
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Just got offered a free upgrade from Win 7 to Win 10... I guess MS wants everybody over to their new OS as quickly as possible.
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8.1 blows. Its on my wife and kids 'puters so I have to use it to keep their systems up and clean. I really think it sucks.